


Another Side, Another Promise

by Fandomaniac1214



Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, Gen, Kidnapping, Mostly Gen, Paranoia, Rating May Change, Stalking, Warnings May Change, but some scenes can be taken as romantic or queerplatonic if the reader so chooses, certainly not me, im an indecisive bitch, ish, might end up making it flat-out romantic but who knows, okay now for the actual tags, posted this like two years ago with a different title but now it's actually getting somewhere, so first attempt at a multichapter fic take two
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-10
Updated: 2020-11-11
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:47:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27486016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fandomaniac1214/pseuds/Fandomaniac1214
Summary: "When it comes to the Organization, you join or you die. And trust me. You don't want the Organization in charge of your death."A what-if scenario set in a modern-day version of Twilight Town; no Keyblades, no Heartless, no Nobodies, just a boy named Roxas and his three best friends setting out to enjoy their summer vacation. Unfortunately, the Organization has other plans for Roxas.In which Hayner, Pence, and Olette are given the love and attention they deserve and Roxas just really can't catch a fucking break.
Relationships: Axel & Roxas & Xion (Kingdom Hearts), Hayner & Olette & Pence & Roxas (Kingdom Hearts), Hayner & Olette & Pence (Kingdom Hearts), Hayner & Roxas (Kingdom Hearts), Olette & Roxas (Kingdom Hearts), Other Relationship Tags to Be Added, Pence & Roxas (Kingdom Hearts)
Kudos: 14





	1. The 1st Day

**Author's Note:**

> this fic has been three years in the making, maybe now i'll actually get further along with it

Roxas jolted upright from a doze when he felt something hit the back of his head. He reached his hand up to the back of his head and turned around to glare at Hayner, who looked suspiciously innocent. There was a balled-up sheet of paper on the ground behind Roxas’s chair. 

“Dude,” Roxas hissed. "What the fuck?"

Hayner shrugged one shoulder, a cavalier smirk on his face as he went back to his game.

“Ugh…” muttered Pence, his head dropping onto his desk with an audible  _ thunk _ . “The last few days of school are always so  _ boring _ …”

“At least it’s almost over,” said Olette, tapping him on the head with her pencil. When he didn’t move, she let out a small huff and dragged their tic-tac-toe paper from under his face. “Last day of school for the year.”

“Another year gone,” said Hayner absently, not taking his eyes off his game as he threw his fist triumphantly into the air. “One year closer to freedom.”

“‘Freedom’ is a relative term,” Pence groaned. “We’ve still got college, and then  _ jobs _ , and then  _ life… _ ”

“Aw, man,” Hayner exclaimed, as his game made a strange, forlorn  _ bweep _ ing noise. “Stop getting existential! You made me lose focus!”

“Or maybe,” Roxas said sagely, “you’re just bad at the game.”

Hayner spluttered, offended, as Pence, head not moving from the table, snorted and held out his fist for Roxas to bump.

“Guys… come on,” said Olette with a giggle. “Be nice.”

“Pence is right, though,” said Roxas with a hum. “It’s actually... kinda fuckin' scary, when you think about it.”

“Thank you, Roxas,” Pence sighed, reaching up his arm blindly to scrawl an  _ x _ into one of the tic-tac-toe squares. “I’m glad one of you understands.”

Olette rolled her eyes and filled in an  _ o _ in the blatantly empty third square in a row, crossing through the three circles. “I win.”

Pence raised his head to glare weakly at the page. “Crap.”

“Maybe if you actually  _ tried _ ,” Olette chuckled, tapping him on the head again.

“Olette,” said Hayner, once again embroiled in his game, “Pence gets like this  _ every year _ on the last day.”

“Just give him some time,” Roxas chuckled. “Once the bell rings he’ll be our excited puppy again.”

Pence dropped his head back onto the table and grumbled something that sounded like  _ I’m not an excited puppy _ .

“Yeah, you are, Pence,” Roxas said, reaching over and patting him on the head. “It’s why we love you.”

The game beeped sadly again.

" _ Damn it! _ "

“Language, Hayner,” the teacher said, “ _ You’re about to leave my class forever, so I don’t really care _ ” clear in her voice despite her words. “Come on. There’s less than fifteen minutes left. Please try to be civil.”

Hayner grumbled out a response, sitting back in his chair and putting the game in his bag. “Fine.”

Roxas smirked and falsely coughed into his hand. “Told you you just suck ass.”

He earned himself a ball of paper directly in the forehead for his troubles.

“For fuck's sake, Hayner,” said Olette with an exaggerated frown. “Stop throwing paper at Roxas.”

“Oh  _ sure _ , you and Roxas can drop the f-bomb every other word, but I'm not allowed to say damn?"

Olette, taken aback, let out a little snort. “Hayner!”

“Oh, my _g_ _ od _ ,” Roxas laughed, putting his face in his hands. “Not this again.”

“You  _ do  _ say it a lot," said Pence wisely. 

Olette looked at him, unimpressed. “You are aware that I’m your ride home.”

Roxas burst out laughing again, leaning back in his chair.

“Wow, Olette, that was  _ cold _ ,” Pence said, putting his head back down on his desk. “Fine. Say it all you want."

“Thank you,” she said with a giggle. “Let’s play another game of tic-tac-toe?”

“And get schooled by you again? I’m all right.”

" _ Shit! _ " Roxas yelped and jumped up just as his chair fell backward, crashing onto the floor.

“Roxas…” came the teacher's tired admonishment after a few seconds of stunned silence. “You've gotta be kidding me.”

“Sorry about that,” he said weakly, amidst Hayner's uproarious laughter. “Leaned back too far.”

The teacher gave him a wry look. “I couldn't tell. Please pick your chair up.”

Roxas bent over and picked the chair off of the floor, his ears turning red as he sat back down.

“Good going,” whispered Pence with a snicker.

“Shut the fuck up.”

“Now it's your turn to piss her off, Pence,” Hayner muttered with a smirk, leaning in close. “C'mon, it's a tradition…”

“A tradition I've hated doing and, actually, only  _ accidentally _ done for the past four years,” retorted Pence. “And it's almost always ‘cause of you.”

“I've gotta agree with Pence on this one,” said Olette, tapping her pencil on her desk.

“What  _ tradition _ ?” asked Roxas with a snort. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

Hayner rolled his eyes. “Never mind. You guys are no fun.”

“ _ What tradition _ ?”

“If you don't know about it, you're lucky,” said Pence with a dramatic grimace. “It's one of Hayner's stupid schemes.”

“Hey! My schemes are not stupid!”

“They kind of are,” said Olette with a laugh, still tapping her desk. “Especially the ones that manage to get us  _ all _ in trouble.”

“That's happened, like,  _ maybe _ once,” Hayner scoffed, crossing his arms. “You act like I  _ try  _ to get in trouble.”

All three of them gave him identical Looks.

Before he could respond, the bell finally rang, startling nearly everyone.

The teacher stood up with a sigh. “Go! Be free!”

Roxas and Hayner were already halfway to the door before the others had even left their seats. At the door, Roxas turned around and called, “Have a great summer, Ms. B!”

“You too, Roxas,” said the teacher with a fond eye roll and shake of her head. “Now go. And take your friends with you.”

Roxas grinned and bolted out of the room, Hayner hot on his tail. 

Olette and Pence took their time to meet them outside the doors, and Pence already looked rejuvenated. 

“School is over for the summer!” Hayner crowed, jumping up and pumping his fist in the air. “What are we gonna do first?”

“I wouldn't mind a  _ nap _ ,” mused Roxas. “School hours are the fucking  _ worst _ .”

Hayner gave him an incredulous look. “Dude. Seriously. What is wrong with you?”

“What? I'm  _ tired! _ ”

“We could always go to the beach,” said Olette. “We didn't get to go last year, remember? We promised we would this year, first chance we get.”

“Yeah, but it's too late to go  _ now _ ,” said Pence. “We'd only get to be there for like an hour, max, at this point in the day.”

“Yeah, you're right,” said Hayner. “The beach’s gotta be an all day thing.”

“We could go tomorrow,” said Roxas. “Make a day out of it.”

“That sounds good to me,” Pence said with a grin. “Pretzels, right?”

“Hell yeah!”

“Of course!”

“Abso-fucking-lutely.”

“Right. So it's settled. We go to the beach tomorrow,” said Hayner, reaching out and ticking off an imaginary checklist with his hand. “So what should we do  _ today _ ?”

Roxas held out his hands and shrugged. “Hey. I already gave you my input.”

“ _We are not sleeping on our first day of summer_ _vacation, dipshit._ ”

“ _ You  _ aren't, maybe, but  _ I  _ might-”

“Oh my god!” Pence yelped. 

The other three turned to look at where he was looking frantically in his bag. 

“Guys, my camera's gone!”

“What?” Hayner asked. “What do you mean, it's  _ gone _ ?”

“I mean it's  _ gone _ ,” Pence said sharply, yanking his camera bag out of his backpack and showing them the empty contents. “I haven't touched it all day!”

“You mean someone stole it?” Olette said with a gasp. “Who'd do that?”

“Uh,” said Roxas, “have you  _ seen  _ the people we go to school with?”

Pence turned white, digging through his bag again.

“Pence?” Olette asked hesitantly.

“No,” Pence moaned. “My portfolio!”

Olette gasped again. “Is it gone, too?”

“ _ Yes _ ,” Pence said, putting the bags down and covering his face with his hands. “The binder's there, but the folders with all my photos are just… gone.”

“Who the hell would steal  _ photographs _ ?” Hayner asked incredulously. 

“We'll find who did it,” Roxas said. “You've been building that up for  _ years _ , Pence. We'll get it back.”

Olette furrowed her brows and reached into her purse. Bringing out her wallet, she opened it and let out an emphatic noise. “What the fuck? My picture's gone, too!” She turned her wallet around to show off the empty picture compartment. “I had that picture of us in front of the tower here!”

Hayner patted his back pockets and pulled his wallet out. “Yeah,” he said darkly. “Mine too.”

Roxas's blood ran cold. He took his own out and immediately noticed the absence of the two photos that usually took up residence there.

“Mine are gone, too,” he said quietly. “The one of the four of us…” He swallowed. “And. The one of me and my dad.”

“Oh, Roxas…” Olette said softly.

“What kind of thief  _ is  _ this?” Hayner asked again. “How could  _ all  _ of our photos go missing at once?”

“I guess we know what we're doing today, then,” said Roxas after a moment. “We gotta find the asshole who stole our pictures and get them back.”

“First we should see if this has happened to anyone else,” said Olette. “See if that narrows down any possibilities.”

“You're right,” Hayner said. “Good thinking.”

“What if  _ everyone's  _ photos are missing?” Pence asked. “What then?”

“Then we keep looking,” said Roxas. “There's gotta be  _ some  _ clue to follow.” 

“Well, let’s quit standing around gossiping,” said Hayner, knocking Roxas on the shoulder, “and get started!”

“Where do we even begin?” asked Pence, zipping his bookbag up and pulling it back onto his back. “This is… advanced.”

“Uhhhh…” Roxas voiced, then turned around to look at the teens still leaving the school building. “Hey! Is anyone missing photos?”

He got a few strange looks, and he distinctly heard Hayner snort behind him ( _ "That works…" _ ), but one girl with long, shaggy red hair stopped and searched through her purse.  After a few seconds, she shook her head and showed him her wallet, in which a photo of herself and a shorter dark-haired girl with big glasses was visible.

Roxas huffed irritably as she walked away. “Okay… so apparently  _ we _ were targeted?”

“One person isn’t enough data to know for sure,” said Pence. “We need to get more information before we try to figure anything o-”

“ _ Hey! _ ”

Olette sighed as Hayner and Roxas bristled and spun around. “Here we go…”

“The hell do  _ you _ want, Seifer?” Hayner growled.

“We want what you took from us,” Seifer replied with an ingratiating smirk. His cronies were trailing not far behind him, as usual. 

“Oh, fuck off," said Roxas sharply. "We didn't take jack _ shit _ from you.”

“Oh yeah? Well,  _ I _ think you did,” said Seifer, leaning in to loom over him. “Give us back our tournament photo.”

“You think  _ we _ stole your tournament photo?” Hayner scoffed. “Why would we do  _ that _ ?”

“Because you  _ lost _ ,” said Seifer. “Why the fuck else?”

“We didn’t steal your fucking photo, Seifer,” said Olette coolly. “Ours are missing, too. Pence’s entire portfolio is gone.” 

Pence nodded, unzipping his bag again and showing Seifer the empty binder.

He glared at them for a few seconds longer, then abruptly turned around and stalked away. 

“Doesn’t like to admit when he’s wrong, that one,” said Pence wisely.

“Call me crazy,” said Hayner without further comment towards Seifer, for once, “but… haven’t  _ all _ the photos that have been stolen been of Roxas?”

Roxas whipped around to stare at Hayner like he'd grown a second head. “What? Where the fuck did you get  _ that _ idea?”

Silence.

“ _ You _ were in that tournament photo, Roxas…” said Olette slowly. “Not any of us. That girl had a picture of herself, and it was fine.”

Pence flipped through his empty folders and made a sound like he had been sucker punched. He pulled out a single photo and showed it to the others.

“Just Olette, Hayner, and I,” he said weakly. “ _ You  _ took this picture. When we went to the falls. All the others are of just you three or all four of us.”

“Wait,” said Hayner with a grin. “Pence, you sap, are  _ we  _ the subject of your portfolio?”

“Could we, I dunno, maybe talk about that  _ later _ ?” asked Roxas, his voice noticeably shaking. “Are you guys saying that someone's fucking  _ targeting _ me?”

“Let’s not jump to conclusions,” said Pence quickly. “We need more data.”

“The data  _ I've  _ gathered so far says that I need to look over my fucking shoulder for the rest of my life,” said Roxas, feeling queasy.

Olette patted him on the arm. “We’ll get to the bottom of this, Roxas, don’t worry.”

“Besides,” said Hayner, slinging an arm around his shoulders. “What person would wanna steal photos of this dumbass?”

“Oh,  _ thanks _ !”

"Any luck?" Pence asked as Roxas and Olette walked out of the drugstore.

Olette shook her head. She cast a mild glance over at Roxas, who was clearly seething.

"You, uh…" Hayner began, raising an eyebrow, "you okay there, Roxas?"

"Why in the  _ fuck _ does everyone think it's  _ me _ doing this?" Roxas burst out. "What reason could I possibly have to want to steal pictures of myself? I'm not fucking Narcissus!"

Hayner snorted, but shut up quickly under the glare Roxas leveled him with.

"The store owner was missing the photo he took with his little sister and Roxas last year when the store opened," Olette explained. "He thought Roxas had done it at first. He was being kind of an asshole about it. His sister called him out for that, though, and how he jumped to conclusions."

Roxas sighed, some of the tension in his shoulders dissipating. "I just don't  _ get  _ it. How is this happening?  _ Why _ is it happening? Why to  _ me _ ?"

The three of them were silent, and he looked up from the ground to see them, arms crossed, looking at him with identical looks of concern. He looked away, scratching the back of his head, his face heating up. "Sorry. Letting it get to me."

"You have every right to be, dude," said Pence. "This is… majorly creepy."

Hayner snorted again. "Majorly creepy?"

"Shut up."

Roxas laughed despite himself. "Thanks, guys."

The sides of Olette's mouth curled up. She clearly already knew the answer to her own question as she asked, "What for?"

Roxas rolled his eyes up to the sky. When he looked back down, Olette’s smile had grown wider, and without much thought, his rose to match. “You know… just. Being yourselves? I think I’d be…” He scratched the back of his head. “Well. Freaking the fuck out even more than I am right now, I guess, without you guys.”

“Awww,” Olette cooed as Hayner and Pence snickered. “You’re so sweet, Roxas.”

Roxas turned his head to the side, running a hand through his hair. “Shut the fuck up.”

“So where do you think we should look next?” Pence said. “Not gonna lie, I’m kind of tired of this.

“I dunno, man,” Hayner sighed. “You were right. This shit’s advanced.”

Roxas sighed. “Honestly? It’s almost sunset. Let’s go get some ice cream and then go home.”

The three of them blinked at him owlishly. It was almost amusing. 

“Roxas,” said Olette hesitantly. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah,” said Roxas in what he hoped was a flippant-enough sounding tone without being concerning. “It’s alright.”

Hayner made a noncommittal noise. “You’re crazy.”

“Maybe,” Roxas snorted. “But whatever.”

They were oddly quiet as they walked to the ice cream parlor, all of them too lost in thought to keep up their typical back-and-forth.

Pence opened the door to the parlor, and Hayner, going in first, bumped into someone coming out at the same time.

“Hey!” Of course, being Hayner, he immediately went on the offensive. “Watch where you’re going!”

The guy he’d knocked into was around their age with sandy blond hair. He looked at Hayner coolly with an unplaceable smile on his face at his outburst. “Why do you assume I wasn’t?”

Hayner blinked. “What.”

The guy honest-to-God giggled. “Oh,  _ wait _ , I know you. You’re the ones raising a fuss over photographs, right?”

“How do you know that?” Hayner hissed.

“It’s a small town,” the guy replied, seemingly even further amused by Hayner’s hackles rising. “Word travels fast.” He crossed his arms, tossing his head slightly. “I’m interested to see how this plays out.”

Without another word, he slipped past Hayner and left the store, not even sparing a last glance their way.

Silence.

“Okay, and who the fuck was  _ that  _ guy?” Roxas sputtered.

“Our thief?” asked Olette, cocking her head to the side. “Something was…  _ off _ about him.”

“Who, the guy who just left?” The question came from a guy with ginger hair, who had approached near the end of the largely one-sided conversation. He let out a snort. “Nah, he’s just a little shit who enjoys fucking with people for his own amusement. Just ignore him, your life will become infinitely easier.” He nodded in Roxas’s direction and followed after the blond. 

“Okay…” Olette muttered. “Ice cream time?”

“Why not?” Roxas snorted. “Some sense of fucking normalcy today would be… nice.”

“Normalcy?” Pence snickered. “In  _ this _ economy?”

“Okay, Mr. Outdated Meme,” Hayner said, shoving the back of Pence’s head and moving them into the parlor. “You’re paying.”

“Damn.”

“Sorry we couldn’t find your photos, Pence,” said Olette, taking the ice cream sundaes out of her cooler and passing them around. A chorus of “thank you”s echoed off the clocktower as she sat down in her spot, opening the box containing her still-cold sundae and taking a bite.

“Yeah,” said Hayner, somehow managing to sound sympathetic despite the fact that he was enthusiastically licking his lips as he stared greedily down at his ice cream. Olette rolled her eyes at him.

Pence made a sound of discomfort, opening his as well and stirring it around slightly.

Roxas stared down at his box silently as it made his hands grow colder. The sunset was beautiful, as always, and the company was good, as always, but the warmth seemed far away.

“Roxas?”

He jumped slightly to see all three of them staring at him, concerned.

“Sorry, did you say something?”

“We were talking about our plan of attack tomorrow,” said Pence. “I say we still go to the beach, and they were arguing with me about it.”

“We need to find those photos!” said Hayner loudly. “We've gotta get to the bottom of this!”

Olette patted Roxas on the leg softly. “And I know this is worrying you, too.”

“All the people that we talked to today who were missing photos,” said Roxas quietly. “Every last  _ fucking  _ one of them. They were of me.”

Olette made a soft sound and moved her hand to squeeze his. “It’s… really scary. I agree, we need to figure this out.”

Roxas grunted, putting his ice cream down next to him and leaning back. 

He was about to lean back up when something caught his eye. “What…?”

“What is it, Roxas?” Pence asked.

Roxas sat up and turned around, narrowing his eyes over near the clock face. There was a brick out of place underneath it. “What the fuck…?”

He stood up, walking over and nudging the errant brick. 

“How the fuck did you see that?”

Something uneasy settled in his gut, and he ignored Olette’s question in favor of wiggling the brick out of the wall.

He dropped the brick with a clatter, only just missing his foot by an inch.

" _ What the fuck _ ," Olette whispered, having come up behind him without him noticing.

In the tiny alcove on the wall were the missing photos.

“Well?” Hayner asked, sounding peeved. “What is it? Share with the class.”

“It’s the photos,” Olette said. 

“It’s the  _ fucking _ photos,” Roxas echoed faintly. “All of them.”

Olette reached her hand in and grabbed a handful. 

“Holy shit,” said Pence. “Those. Those are my photos.”

“What the fuck,” said Roxas, hands shaking. “What. The  _ fuck _ .”

“So!” said Pence, voice cracking. “How about… I sort these at home, give everybody else the ones they’re missing, we pretend this never happened, and we go to the beach tomorrow? Because this is really starting to freak me out.”

“Pence…” sighed Olette, crossing her arms.

“No,” said Roxas. “He’s… I mean… He's right. The pictures… they’re back, right? So we don’t need to worry?”

The three of them looked at him with raised eyebrows, their reactions comically identical.

“So then… Fuck it. Let’s go to the beach,” Roxas said, clearing his throat and looking away. “We promised we’d go last year, and we didn’t. Let’s just go, and have fun. If anything weird happens there, we’ll get to the bottom of it. Okay?”

“Are you sure you’re all right?” Pence asked. “You seemed really disturbed earlier.”

“Yeah,” said Roxas with an attempt at an easygoing grin that he hoped didn’t fall as flat as it felt. “Don’t worry. It’ll take a lot more than some creepy-ass ninja photo thief to get me.”


	2. The 2nd Day

Roxas’s dreams were full of shadowy figures and spinning photos, and he was roused by the sun streaming through his window and the sound of his phone chirping cheerfully on his bedside table.

He yawned widely, rubbing the sleep from his eyes and picking up his phone.

He wrinkled his nose as he hovered his finger over his group chat app. Thirteen unread messages.  _ Shit.  _ He scrolled down to check out the latest ones.

**11:47 AM**

**Future Struggle Champion:** dude  **@Partner in Crime** where are u

**Her Wonderful Majesty:** Rooxaaaaas 

**Her Wonderful Majesty:** Wake the fuck up

**Impulse Control:** We're going to the beach today, remember?

**11:55 AM**

**Future Struggle Champion: @Partner in Crime**

**Future Struggle Champion: @Partner in Crime**

**Future Struggle Champion: @Partner in Crime**

**Future Struggle Champion: @Partner in Crime**

**Future Struggle Champion: @Partner in Crime**

**Future Struggle Champion:** WAKE UP YOU PRICK

Roxas snorted. He would have been more surprised to see the multiple pings had Hayner not done it multiple times before. He looked up at the clock and winced -- he had accidentally slept until noon. He sat up and launched himself off of his bed, shoving his swim shorts in a bag with sunscreen and a towel and yanking on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. 

He burst out of his room and made his way to the kitchen, pulling on his shoes and almost tripping and falling directly into his mother.

“Well!” she said, steadying him and grabbing the beach bag, dangling it on one finger in front of him. “He rises. Good morning, sleepyhead.”

Roxas's mother was still a young woman, about half a head shorter than him, with kind blue eyes full of humor. Her strawberry blonde hair, usually piled high into a bun with a pencil or paintbrush stuck through it, was loose and wavy around her shoulders. It had only been recently that she had been able to pick up her art again, having had to put it on a shelf for a while after Roxas’s father had passed.

Roxas laughed sheepishly, finally getting his balance again. “Morning, Mom. Off to the beach with the others.”

His mother regarded him with a small smirk, looking down at his feet. “Is wearing one flip flop and one sandal the new beach fashion statement, or is that just you?”

Roxas blinked at her dumbly for a second or two, then looked down and noted that he had, in fact, managed to put on two different types of shoes in his haste. 

"That would be me with a mindless fuuuhhh…screwup."

She tapped him on the head with a knuckle. "Uh huh, good catch there, kiddo. Go ahead and get the right shoes on." She swung the bag on her finger. "This'll be here when you come back."

He grinned and rushed back up to his room, digging through his pile of shoes to find the right one and slip it on. Thank god for his mom, honestly. The last thing he needed was  _ more _ blackmail material to present to Hayner on a silver platter. He grimaced at the thought. His thirteenth birthday was more than enough of  _ that  _ for one lifetime.

He clomped down the stairs, exaggeratedly flapping his flip flops when he rounded the corner and saw his mother still standing in the kitchen. 

She looked up from where she was leaning on the counter looking down at her phone. “Mission accomplished?”

“Mission accomplished.” He took the bag from her outstretched hand and ducked away from her reaching to ruffle his hair. 

She tutted. “Rude.” She leaned away, walking over to the refrigerator. “You taking the train?” Picking up a water bottle and tossing it over, she added, “Here, take this. Dehydration’s-”

“-no joke, Mom,” said Roxas with a laugh, catching the bottle easily. “I know.” He put the bottle in his bag. “Anyway, yeah, we’re taking the train. Can I bring three more for the others?”

“Come get it yourself, lazybones.”

_ Ping! _

He glanced down.

**12:08 PM**

**Future Struggle Champion:** ROXAS WE’RE GONNA MISS THE TRAIN IF YOU DON’T GET YOUR SORRY ASS OUT HERE

“ _ Mom _ , I’m running late! Hayner’s gonna kill me!”

She rolled her eyes, reaching into the fridge again. “The things I do for you…”

“Thank you! Love you!” he exclaimed, rushing over to take the bottles from her and give her a swift kiss on the cheek. “See you tonight!”

“Tell the others I said hi!” she called after him. “And be careful!”

“I will!” he called as he shut the front door behind him. He turned around, a smile still on his face, and let out a strangled yelp, back slamming against the door.

“ _ It’s about damn time _ ,” said Hayner, two inches in front of his face. “I was about to come in there and drag you out myself! Hurry  _ up _ , man, we’re gonna be late!”

“Dude, you scared the  _ hell _ out of me,” Roxas wheezed, allowing his arm to be grabbed and himself to be yanked down the steps. “Don’t fucking do that, thought you were about to fucking kill me.”

“It’s still up in the air, asshole,” Hayner said darkly. Roxas snorted, which earned him an even darker glare. 

“We’re gonna have to book it if we want to make it in time,” Pence called from the intersection as they approached. “The train leaves in ten!”

“Sorry,” Roxas said sheepishly, tugging the back of his hair. “Slept through my alarm.”

“Unbelievable.”

“To be perfectly fair,” said Olette as they began to half-walk, half-jog in the direction of the station, “he  _ did _ say yesterday he wanted to sleep.”

“Sleep when we  _ don’t  _ have plans, genius!” Hayner said, emphasizing his words by reaching over and repeatedly smacking the back of Roxas’s head.

“Ow,  _ hey!  _ Alright,  _ alright _ !” Roxas laughed, slapping Hayner’s hand away. “I got the picture, fucking stop it, you jerk!”

The station came into view, its enormous clocktower hanging ominously above the horizon. 

“Man, that thing’s tall,” Roxas said, slightly out of breath from the jog up the monstrous hill in Station Heights. “Always forget just how tall it is. No wonder my mom looks queasy every time I mention it when we’ve been hanging out up there.”

“You actually  _ tell _ your mom?” Hayner asked, looking at Roxas like he’d just said he’d sold his firstborn to a witch. “Dude.  _ Why _ ?”

Roxas hummed, shrugging. “I dunno. I just do?”

“ _ Guys! _ ” Pence hollered from over by the station entrance’s glass double doors. Olette had already gone in, it seemed. “ _ Two minutes! _ ”

“Shit,” Roxas muttered, and he and Hayner shared a brief look and bolted over to join their friends. 

“Oh, yeah,” Roxas said, once they had all gotten safely on the train to the beach. “Mom sent these, by the way.” He reached into his bag and pulled out the water bottles, tossing two across the aisle to Olette and Pence, and handing the last one to Hayner beside him. “Figured the train ride is a bit longer than we’re used to and didn’t want us to like. Die from dehydration.”

“You dork,” Hayner scoffed, rolling his eyes. “It’s like, an hour.”

“I mean, if you don’t want it-”

“Shut up, I didn’t say that.”

“Thanks, Roxas,” said Pence. “Your mom is super nice, you know that?”

Roxas smiled. “Yeah, she is pretty great.”

Hayner snickered. “Aw. That’s adorable.”

Roxas reached into the bag again and brought out his own bottle, flipping Hayner off with the other hand. He unscrewed the cap as Olette roared with laughter.

“You two are such fucking morons,” Olette cackled. “Why do I hang out with you?”

“Aw,” said Hayner again, pitching his voice up a horrific amount, “you know you love us, Olette. We’re your bestest buds.” He fluttered his eyelashes for dramatic effect. She kicked across the aisle at his leg.

“ _ Please _ never do that again,” said Pence with an unreadable expression on his face. “That was… so wrong.”

Roxas snorted and turned to look out the window, mindlessly tuning out of the conversation. It was just like normal. He felt a stab of relief that he couldn’t quite place. Of course it was just like normal. It was Hayner, Pence, and Olette. 

“-as! Earth to Roxas! Man, you’re spacey.”

He jerked back to attention, looking back over at his friends. “Oh, shit, sorry, what?”

“What did we want to do first?” Olette repeated. “Did we want pretzels when we get there or later?”

“I said save them for later,” said Pence, “but Hayner is a bottomless pit-”

“ _ Hey! _ ”

“-and wants them when we get there.” Pence shoved Hayner away with a hand to his face, back to his side of the train car.

“And I don’t really care either way,” finished Olette. “So you’re the tiebreaker, Roxas.”

“...I feel like you’re going to kill me for this, but I don’t really care either.”

Olette blinked slowly, deliberately at him, visibly unimpressed. “You’re a dick.”

Pence lost it, sliding down on the floor with his back to the seat as his shoulders shook and he clutched at his stomach.

Hayner let out a faint noise of disgust. “Pence, these floors are gross.”

Olette watched Pence laugh for a few moments with an indulgent grin, her attention successfully diverted from Roxas. Then she looked up. “Fine then, since Roxas is being a useless fuck,  _ I’ll _ be the tie-breaker. Pretzels later.” 

The dejected wail that came out of Hayner’s mouth set Pence off again, Roxas and Olette joining moments later. Hayner grumbled for a few minutes, but each time one of the three almost stopped laughing, they would make eye contact with the others and start up again, and eventually, Hayner couldn’t help but laugh as well.

“Ooh, there’s a good spot,” said Olette, peering up over the dune with a hand over her eyes, even with the sunhat on her head. “Down over there, by the lifeguard?”

“Looks good to me,” said Pence, reaching into his bag and pulling out a pair of sunglasses.

“Dude. What the  _ fuck _ are those?” Roxas asked, looking down at them with more than a little concern.

Pence grinned and put the pink, flamingo-shaped sunglasses on his face with a flourish. Hayner had turned to look at Roxas’s voice and promptly choked on nothing, bending over and hacking up a lung.

Roxas swore he heard Olette mutter “ _ fucking morons _ ” under her breath, shaking her head with a smirk on her face. 

“At least they’re not  _ crocs _ ,” said Pence pointedly, nodding his head at Hayner’s feet. 

“Shut up, I just don’t like flip-flops, loser!”

Olette snorted. “Oh, my  _ god _ , you’re  _ all  _ losers! Yes or no to the beach spot, or someone’s gonna get there before we do!”

“Excuse me? What do you mean,  _ all _ ?” Roxas laughed. “What did  _ I _ do?”

Olette crossed her arms, giving him a slow once-over that bordered on uncomfortable. After a moment, she let out a dissatisfied hum. “Okay, you win. There’s nothing atrocious about you right now.” 

She grinned wickedly. “Yet.”

“Wh-”

With a blur of motion, she whipped the sunhat off of her head, shoved it down onto his, completely mussing up his hair under the force, and took off running in the direction of the lifeguard. 

“ _ Hey!  _ You little-  _ Get back here! _ ”

He gave chase, hearing her laughing all the way across the beach.  _ Damn _ , she was fast. 

By the time he reached her, she was sitting on a towel, rubbing sunscreen onto her arms. She looked up and smirked at him. “Oh, hey, fancy meeting you here!”

He half-scoffed, half-chuckled, slapping the hat back on her head. “Dumbass.”

Olette tittered, taking off the hat and putting it to the side, rubbing what sunscreen was left on her hands into her cheeks and the bridge of her nose. She was silent as Roxas set down his bag, taking his towel and putting it out next to hers and plopping down. “It’s such a nice day,” she hummed after a bit.

“Yeah,” a voice came from behind them, making them both jump, “we really couldn’t have picked a better beach day.”

“Took your slow asses long enough,” said Roxas as Hayner and Pence sat down next to them on their own towels. 

Hayner flipped him off.

“Pence,” Roxas huffed, pinching the bridge of his nose with both pointer fingers on catching sight of his friend again. “I’m begging you. I am on my hands and knees. Please take those godawful glasses off.”

Pence snickered, lifting his nose haughtily. “Absolutely not.”

“I’m going to throw them in the ocean and make it look like an accident.”

“I’ll throw  _ you _ in the ocean.”

“Sunscreen!” chirped Olette, a welcome interruption, shaking the bottle. “I’m not listening to you three whine if you get burnt!”

“Yeah, you would.”

“You definitely would.”

“Probably help put aloe on, too.”

Olette stuck her tongue out at them. “Shut up or I’ll make you put on your own damn aloe.”

“No, you wouldn’t.”

“You definitely wouldn’t.”

“We’d be lost without you, Olette.”

She sniffed. “You’re absolutely fucking right. Someone has to be the brains around here.” She shook the bottle again, ignoring Pence’s indignant noise. “Who wants it first?”

“Why me?”

“It’ll be fun, man, come on,” Hayner goaded, poking him in the side. “Also funny.”

Pence rolled his eyes. “If you think it’ll be so funny, how about Olette, Roxas, and I bury  _ you _ in the sand?”

“I gotta agree with Hayner on this one, Pence,” said Roxas with a sly grin over at Olette. “C’mon, let’s do it.”

Pence scowled, but relented rather quickly. “ _ Fine _ , let’s get it over with.”

Olette giggled. “This is gonna be fun.”

Pence made a face. “Doubting that more and more every second.”

Olette shoved him lightly, and he plopped down on the sand. 

“ _ Eurgh _ ,” he shuddered. “I hate how it sticks to me.”

“Suck it up, we’re at the beach,” Hayner shot back, dumping a bucket of wet sand over Pence’s lower body.

Pence squawked. “Where the hell did you get  _ that _ ?”

“Hayner, what the fuck,” Roxas asked dryly. Olette let out a low chuckle, moving the sand over top of Pence single mindedly.

“Okay,” said Pence. “I’m done.”

He moved to get up, but Hayner pushed his head back down with a barely-voiced “Uh-uh,” and shook his finger in his face. “We’re in this now.”

Pence grumbled under his breath until the three of them stood up, admiring their handiwork. 

“He looks like an upside-down turtle,” Hayner cackled. 

“Ha, ha, you guys are hilarious, get me  _ out _ .”

Roxas snickered. “Actually, I have a better idea.” He walked over to where Pence’s head stuck out of the sand like a reverse ostrich, crouching down with a pointed grin. 

“What the-”

“Whoops,” said Roxas, plucking the flamingo sunglasses off Pence’s face. 

“Hey!” Pence said, trying to sound menacing, but his voice cracked with amusement halfway through the word, and the effect was ruined. “Give them back, you asshole! I can’t move my arms!”

“That’s… kind of the point, buddy,” said Roxas, strolling away from his mostly-buried friend. He walked up to the water, the glasses still in his hand, and closed his eyes for a moment. Man, he loved the sound of the beach. 

“Roxas!”

He opened his eyes with a start at Hayner’s call and whirled back around to see that Pence had escaped his sandy prison and was clomping down the beach towards him. Roxas burst out laughing. “Dude, you’re sending sand flying  _ everywhere _ !”

Pence let out a war cry, and Roxas made a split second decision. In the moments before Pence reached him, he brought his hand back and  _ threw _ the glasses, as hard as he could, into the ocean.

“Oh, you’re going  _ down _ !” Pence howled, and within seconds, he had tackled Roxas with all his strength, sending them both crashing into the oncoming wave with a gigantic splash.

“The ocean is so cool,” Pence said later, all of them back up on the beach after cooling off in the water. “There’s so much shit in there that can just straight-up kill you. Including the ocean itself.”

Roxas turned to stare at him blankly for a moment. Olette raised her head, her hat back on, and lowered her sunglasses to do the same. Hayner didn’t move, and Roxas had the funny feeling he had fallen asleep with his face under his towel.

“ _ What _ ?” Pence asked defensively. “Why are you both looking at me like that?”

“We are sitting,” said Roxas, slowly, “ _ currently sitting _ , on the beach, at the ocean. And you think that it’s a good time to talk about all the things that can kill us? In the ocean?”

Olette laughed. “Clearly it’s the best time. Go on, Pence, I’m interested. What kind of weird shit can kill us in the ocean?”

“And on that note,” Roxas chuckled, standing up and brushing the sand off his swim trunks, “I’m gonna go get us our pretzels.

“Hell yeah,” came Hayner’s muffled voice. 

“Oh, my god, I thought you were asleep,” Pence wheezed. “You scared the hell out of me.”

Hayner lifted up his arms, his head not moving from under the towel, and wiggled his fingers. “ _ Ooooooooh… _ ”

Olette slapped him with her hat.

“Be right back,” said Roxas, turning towards the boardwalk.

“So there’s this one type of octopus, right, that has this insanely deadly venom…”

Pence’s voice faded off into the distance as Roxas reached the edge of the sand dune and stepped up onto the boardwalk. He couldn’t stop the smile from forming on his face. Today had been a good day.

He could see a pretzel stand a few hundred feet down the boardwalk, so he slipped his feet into his flip flops and began to walk over. 

“Hey there,” said the tanned brunet manning the cart, with such a huge smile that it had to be fake. “What can I get for ya today?”

“Uh, just four of your traditional soft pretzels, please.” Roxas held up four fingers and reached into his bag with his other hand for the few dollar bills he had brought.

“Sure thing! It’s a nice day today, huh?”

Roxas looked up from his bag, brows furrowing. “Uh, yeah.”

“I grew up on an island,” continued the guy, idly tapping his fingers on the countertop, seemingly oblivious to Roxas’s confusion and discomfort, “but I have to say, this beach is impressive for the mainland.”

Roxas shrugged awkwardly, returning to rummaging in his bag. “I’ve always lived inland, so any beach is great to me.”

The guy nodded sagely, blue eyes twinkling. “That’s fair. Okay, here are your pretzels, and that’ll be six dollars.”

The money wasn’t in his bag. “Shit, uh. Hang on. What the hell?” he muttered, turning around and using both hands to search through it. “I know I just had it this morning…”

“I’ll pay for him.”

Both Roxas and the brunet behind the stand turned at the sound of the new voice. 

The brunet opened his mouth like he wanted to say something, and though the pale blonde girl in front of them was smiling, Roxas saw an almost imperceptible shake of her head. She was shorter than he was, with a large white sunhat like Olette’s, and was wearing a white sundress and sheer white shawl. She didn’t look familiar.

“I was sitting underneath that tree over there,” the girl said, pointing at the tree in question, “when I saw you come up onto the boardwalk. I saw someone reach into your bag, but by the time I realized what had happened, they were long gone.” She hung her head. “Sorry.”

Roxas shrugged. “No big deal. It was just like seven bucks. You don’t have to pay for it, it’s alright.”

The girl shook her head. “No, I insist.” She smiled sweetly and nodded at the guy manning the stand. 

He still looked perplexed for some reason, but accepted the money she offered him.

“Thanks,” Roxas muttered, mildly embarrassed. “I’ll pay you back somehow.” 

“Yeah, thanks, Na-”

“It’s okay,” said the girl with a small laugh, cutting off the brunet mid-word. “No trouble at all. Have fun!”

Roxas took the pretzels from the baffled employee, who quickly excused himself, and turned back around. “Hey, wait, what’s your-”

He blinked, looking around. “...name?”

The girl was gone.

Pence was standing up, gesturing wildly as Roxas approached.

“...and I’m like, ‘Ma’am! Ma’am! That will  _ super _ kill you! What are you doing?’ And she just. Drops it in her shirt like a frigging madwoman, okay, and-”

“I mean,” said Olette, shrugging, as Roxas stopped in front of them. “Death by neurotoxic tiddy, I guess.”

Hayner let out a noise like a dying whale. His face was still covered with the beach towel, only this time it looked like it was for his own protection, clutching it to his face with white knuckles.

Roxas stared unblinkingly at Olette for an indeterminable amount of time, and then turned on his heel and began to walk away without a word.

Olette and Pence burst out laughing. 

“Wait, no, Roxas, come back!” Pence exclaimed, bending over at the waist. “Don’t let the neurotoxic tiddy scare you away!”

“ _ Pretzels _ ,” Hayner’s voice wailed.

“You don’t tell me the context of that, and you can have your pretzels,” Roxas said with a huff, turning back around and looking Pence and Olette in the eye.

Olette giggled. “Deal.”

Roxas nodded, sitting back down on his towel and kicking Hayner’s shin. “Hey. Pretzels. Gotta get your face out to eat.”

Hayner grumbled, finally taking the towel off his face and squinting unhappily into the sun. 

“Okay, so you know how I said if anything weird happened today, I’d tell you?”

The three of them stopped what they were doing and peered at him curiously. 

“So, my money just got stolen, and there was this girl who appeared out of nowhere…”

“Man, that was fun,” Hayner said, stepping onto the boardwalk with a stretch. “Best idea we’ve had in ages.”

Sounds of agreement echoed around the other three.

“I’m beat,” Pence said. “Gonna go home and sleep for a whole day.”

“Nope! Come on, you know what we have to do tomorrow…”

A flash of white caught Roxas’s eye, and he turned his head to see the same girl in white from earlier standing under a tree with a redheaded girl - was that the lifeguard who had been on duty earlier? - and a tall, almost dangerous-looking grey-haired man in a black shirt and dark jeans. He was about to wave to try to get the girl in white’s attention when the man looked up and met Roxas’s eye from across the field.

The man’s eyes narrowed, brows furrowed, before Roxas tore his gaze away, and despite the heat of the day, he felt a chill run up his spine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well i have now officially made it further in this than i did the first time yell heah  
> also "what you let them actually go to the beach in a rendition of day 2???" yeah because diz is a little bitch who's been thanos'ed from existing in this fic  
> >:3c  
> also the cameos in this chapter arent trick questions, theyre definitely who youll likely assume they are, theyre just very bad at being subtle

**Author's Note:**

> narrator voice: unfortunately, he was right
> 
> also if y'all recognize the poorly-disguised cameos in this chapter, i'll give u. idk a heart emoji or something


End file.
